The Planetsider Trilogy

by G J Ogden

  “You think that this foolish stunt of yours with Maria Salus will wash away the bloodstains from your hands?” Kuba added, stepping closer and leaning in so that Page could make out every oily line in his puffy face. “I am afraid you are beyond redemption, Major. And you will give me what I want, one way or another.”

  “I didn’t think torture was quite your style?” said Page, glaring back at him, and struggling with all his might to break the bonds that held him in the chair, so that he could wrap his hands around Kuba’s stumpy neck. “Where is Kurren’s other lapdog, Darien? I’m sure he’s the one you’ll get to do your dirty work.”

  Kuba leaned back, but matched Page’s dagger like stare. He was sick of the condescension from the military class; the constant discourtesy and derision and lack of respect.

  “I killed Major Darien,” said Kuba, coolly, observing the desired reaction from the soldier; a slight widening of the eyes and raising of the eyelids as his pupils dilated, involuntarily. Page had tried to disguise it as best he could, but Kuba had learned to read expressions and knew that for the first time since regaining consciousness, Page was scared. His smiled widened again.

  “I killed him in this very room, in fact,” Kuba went on, drawing confidence and satisfaction from seeing Page break, like a leech drawing blood. “You are correct, he was merely a lapdog, and without Kurren, his weakness was an impediment to my success.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Page lied. “You don’t have the guts to kill anyone.”

  Kuba hammered his fists on the corner of the black table. “I am stronger than any of you!” he bellowed, his face burning red. “You military classes think you know everything, but you are wrong!”

  He suddenly appeared embarrassed and straightened up, forcing his face to adopt a more neutral expression.

  “I apologize for the outburst, my dear Major,” he said, while straightening the jacket of his suit, “but I am afraid you are mistaken. I killed Major Darien and had his body incinerated. I simply claimed the body was that of a resistance sympathizer and traitor, who was killed while attempting to flee.” Kuba had outwardly regained his composure, but Page could hear the stress in his words and knew the rage was simmering just below the surface. “No-one will ever know what happened to Darien. I have the power to make anyone disappear; a fact I would remind you of, given your current situation.” He leaned in again and Page could see the veins throbbing in his neck, and feel his hot breath on his face; it reeked of alcohol. “I can make Maria Salus vanish too, when I find her. And I will find her, Major, mark my words.”

  Kuba glared at Page for a second longer and then leant across the table and pressed a button on a small control panel that was built into the surface. “As much as I have enjoyed this conversation, I’m afraid we must return to the matter at hand.”

  The main elevator door slipped open and a black-haired soldier marched in dressed in jet black combat clothing. Page recognized her immediately from the flight training campus.

  “This is Lieutenant Zahn. She will be… assisting me,” said Kuba, with a crooked smile.

  Page laughed and shook his head. “So, you don’t have the guts, after all.”

  Kuba’s smiled vanished and the rage bubbled over again; he clenched his teeth and his lips wobbled, but then his mouth relaxed back into its default half-smile, as if a switch had been flipped in his brain. He smoothed away the imaginary lines of his creaseless jacket and glanced across to Lieutenant Zahn, who stood rigidly to attention at his side, fists clenched, eyes focused on Page.

  “So, Major Page; shall we begin?” said Kuba, unable to mask the cruel intentions behind his words. “Tell me where I can find Maria Salus…”

  Chapter 16

  The sun inched over the horizon, turning the sky from steel gray to ochre red, but the wind that licked at Ethan’s face was still cool and crisp. He heard the sound of boots clacking across the newly upgraded metal decking that had replaced the wooden planks on the walkways around the walls, and glanced across to see Yuna approaching. Over the top of the clothes that Ethan had given her the night before, she was wearing the thick ranger outerwear that was more commonly reserved for the cruel winter months.

  “Looks like you’re about ready to take the ranger’s oath,” said Ethan, smiling warmly.

  “No, I just got fed up with being cold,” Yuna replied, fastening another button on the coat to stop the wind from sneaking in. Our complex is always kept at a steady twenty-one degrees. I hope you don’t mind me borrowing this?”

  “Not at all, you’d make a fine ranger,” said Ethan, looking back out towards the sunset. “I bet you don’t get a view like this from inside your mountain.”

  Yuna rested her elbows on the top of the wall and drank in the view. Ethan was right; the closest they got to nature was their subterranean garden. “It’s beautiful. It almost makes you forget how dead this planet is.”

  “Not dead,” said Ethan, closing his eyes to feel the wind against his face. “This planet is a survivor, like us. All it needs is time to heal, and for us to not give up on it.”

  Yuna nodded, but then her thoughts wandered and she was reminded of Summer. In many ways, her situation mirrored that of the planet; she had been broken and pieced back together, but parts of her were still damaged. Yet, she was also still strong. Perhaps, they could still find a way to reverse the damage, not only to Summer, but to the planet as well.

  “How is Summer?” said Yuna, trying to pose the question as neutrally as possible.

  Ethan breathed in the cool air and exhaled slowly. “I haven’t seen her since last night.”

  “She’ll come around. She’s not the sort to give up easily.”

  “I hope so,” said Ethan; he was as much talking to himself as to Yuna.

  Their conversation was interrupted by an electronic bleep that seemed to be coming from somewhere within Yuna’s vast array of clothing. He watched as she pulled back the sleeve of the ranger coat to reveal a small device attached to her wrist.

  “Anything wrong?” asked Ethan. Though the device did not look like the bulkier PVSM units the UEC soldiers used, he assumed it was performing a similar function.

  “It’s an alert from one of the perimeter sensors,” Yuna replied, swiping a finger over the device to run through a sequence of different readouts. “There’s something heading this way; right for us, actually.”

  Ethan nodded. “Good, it’s about time. I’m getting tired of being cooped in here.”

  “Spoiling for a fight, eh?”

  “I just want to do something,” said Ethan, adding extra emphasis to the word, something. “It’s time we took the fight to the roamers and the maddened, instead of just hiding behind our walls and hoping they’ll leave us alone.”

  Yuna continued to study the small display panel on her wrist, but then spotted Zoie in her peripheral vision, leaving the council chambers. She stopped briefly, seeming to spot Yuna on the wall, and began jogging to the closest ladder to climb up onto the walkway.

  “Well, there are maybe thirty or more of those things approaching,” said Yuna, pulling the sleeve of her coat back over the device and returning her attention to Ethan. “Let’s see how Tyler’s new defenses shape up.”

  “I’d rather just go out there and face them,” said Ethan, gripping the cold, gray stone wall as if he was preparing to vault over it.

  Yuna checked down behind the gate, making sure that the armored crawler was still parked up, ready and waiting. The orange sunset gleamed in its panels. “Let the defenses do their job, and then we’ll go out together, okay? I wouldn’t mind a quick trip outside the walls myself, before I have to sit in decontamination and grow bored out of my mind.”

  Ethan followed the direction of Yuna’s gaze and saw the crawler. “You’re on.”

  The sound of Zoie’s boots clacking on the metal decking made them both turn to face her and she stopped a few meters short of Ethan, breathing heavily. “The perimeter alarm was tripped... there are
thirty five… things… heading in this direction,” she said, between wheezy breaths.

  Yuna pulled back her sleeve and waved the wrist-mounted device at her. “I know, I’m wearing the tactical monitor that Tyler made for us.”

  Zoie looked despondent. “So, you mean I could have just talked to you over the commlink, instead of running all the way up here?”

  “The exercise will do you good.”

  Zoie frowned and coughed, while thumping her chest. “It doesn’t feel that way.”

  “Ethan and I are going to watch from up here and then test the crawler out on any that are left, once the defense systems have done their job.”

  Zoie looked out at the crimson horizon and saw the dark shapes of their enemies closing in. “Okay, I’ll monitor from the council chamber.” She wagged a finger at her sister and added, “You be careful. No risks, okay?”

  “I promise,” said Yuna, sincerely.

  Ethan smiled at Zoie and added, “Don’t worry, we’ll be cautious.” Zoie nodded and then jogged back along the walkway, at a far more leisurely pace than before. Ethan was aware of the clack of Zoie’s boots on the metal deck, but then the sound of her footsteps were suddenly drowned out by the vibrant hum of the two enormous turrets at the corners of the settlement walls, like sleeping guardians that had just been awakened and were yawning vociferously. Moments later there was another hum from above him, and Ethan peered up to see one of the GARDs hovering about ten meters above his head. The combination of all three powerful weapons saturated the air with an ominous, low throb that Ethan could feel reverberating through the deck plates and inside his chest, and despite knowing that these devices were on his side, he couldn’t help but feel intimidated by them.

  “They’re coming…” said Yuna, ominously.

  Ethan concentrated back on the grounds in front of the settlement and saw their adversaries approaching, some emerging from the small pockets of woodland, others from over the tops of the rolling hills that surrounded the settlement, and some rising directly from the valley where the broken city still sat, smoldering in the distance like an angry volcano. All of them moved low and fast and with the unmistakable, inhuman gait of the maddened. Not long ago the sight of so many of these creatures bearing down on Forest Gate would have saturated his body with terror; but not this time. This time Ethan felt a rush, not of excitement, exactly; more like a powerful sense of anticipation.

  Ethan watched with interest as the figures swarmed closer, huddled into small clusters of four or five, but with no apparent co-ordination or communication between them. The nearest cluster charged down the hill to his right and Ethan could feel his heart thump harder, and his instincts told him to run. But then the turret swung in the direction of the approaching enemies and its low hum, which had been consistent up to that point, began to climb, growing louder and stronger, shaking the deck plates until the barrel of the cannon glowed blue, and five bolts of energy sped towards the creatures in such rapid succession that Ethan was forced to squint to shield his eyes against the blinding brilliance of the searing blue light. When he opened them fully again a cluster of bodies lay sprawled on the yellow-green grass, smoke rising from deep, blackened craters in their chests.

  There was no let up as the GARD darted towards the pack in the center, moving so quickly that Ethan struggled to follow its sharp, perfectly straight motions. The flash of its weapons reached Ethan’s eyes, though the sound was lost, overpowered by a rising resonating pulse as the second turret jolted into action, firing the same, searing blue bolts of energy out towards the tree line. Ethan couldn’t see the intended targets, but instantly the trees exploded into flame, as if struck by some ethereal force. The turrets and GARD continued to unleash their electrical fury at each oncoming wave and then, as quickly as the maelstrom of energy bolts had begun, the GARD swooped back to its invisible perch above Ethan’s head, and the menacing hum from the two turrets diminished, their smoking barrels swinging back to their prior positions, aimed towards the city.

  Yuna checked her tactical monitor. “Twenty-nine down, the rest seem to have turned back, through the trees.” She pointed over to the small wooded area, part of which was on fire.

  “I’ve never seen one of those things turn tail and run before,” said Ethan, feeling his pulse begin to slow.

  “First time for everything!” said Yuna who, unlike Ethan, seemed to have found the entire event thrilling, rather than alarming. “What do you say we take the crawler out and finish them off?”

  “Are you sure you’re not secretly some sort of elite UEC soldier?” said Ethan, envying Yuna’s apparent fearlessness. Or, perhaps, she just trusted their new allies more than Ethan; to him, this was all new and very strange.

  “Come on, before we lose them,” Yuna called out; she was already half-way down the ladder to the settlement square. Ethan followed and joined her in the crawler, climbing into the rear compartment. There were two bolt-throwers stashed in a rack; Ethan grabbed one and powered it on.

  Yuna activated the crawler’s motors, which hummed serenely in comparison to the mighty turrets, and then hit the commlink . “Zoie, some of them got away so we’re going to pursue. Send the GARD to monitor and transmit their location back to the crawler.”

  The commlink crackled on. “Understood. I’m sending the second GARD to watch over you. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Stop fussing!” snapped Yuna, though it was more playful than snippy. “I’ll be careful, don’t worry.” Then she clicked off the commlink and hit another button; a second later, the gate began to swing open.

  “Are you ready back there?” shouted Yuna, arching her neck to check on Ethan. She had lowered the rear glass partition of the crawler’s cabin so they could still talk.

  Ethan twisted the dial on the side of the bolt-thrower to maximum and felt its power vibrating though his hands and arms. The first GARD zipped over his head and into the center of the settlement where it dropped into its re-charging pod, while the second shot up and took its place. Ethan waited for the metal guardian to assume its position and then looked back at Yuna, giving her a thumbs up. “Okay, let’s go.”

  Yuna accelerated out of the gates so rapidly that had Ethan not been holding on to the guard rail, he would probably have sailed straight off the back of the crawler. The GARD flew on ahead and climbed higher, while Yuna steered the crawler towards the smoldering trees a few hundred meters ahead. Ethan peered back towards the settlement, which was vanishing into the distance with alarming rapidity, and then ducked lower inside the armored rear compartment to shield himself from the buffeting of the wind. The trees sped past to Ethan’s left, and then they climbed a steep slope, veering left to cut through a rocky area, until they broke over the top of a hill and sped on through rugged moorland on the other side. Ethan realized that he had not ventured out in this direction before, since the boggy terrain was too dangerous to traverse on foot. In contrast, the multi-tracked crawler was having no difficulty at all.

  He tightened his grip on the guard rail and stood up, feeling the full force of the air rushing past his face. He could see the GARD, perhaps a hundred meters ahead, unleashing bolts of blue energy toward the ground, though the targets were out of view, below the line of the horizon. Suddenly, the GARD stopped firing, and Yuna eased back, maneuvering the crawler towards where the GARD was silently hovering.

  “I think it beat us to them!” Yuna shouted back to Ethan. “But let’s take a look anyway; there’s a hollow ahead, in the direction they were heading.”

  Ethan nodded and Yuna focused ahead again. Despite the protection of the GARD and their armed and armored crawler, there was something about being in unfamiliar terrain that Ethan found disquieting. The moorlands had never been off-limits, but no scouting parties ever ventured into them. One reason was that the terrain was dangerous and unpredictable; fogs could sweep in without warning and there had been times when inexperienced rangers had been either lost or fallen into bogs, and in some cases had
died of exposure to the elements, long before being found. Since there were few useful resources out there, and scarcely any animal sightings, it wasn’t worth the risk and the region had been left alone.

  Yuna again dialed back the speed of the crawler as they drew closer to the GARD. The device was hovering, in the way it usually did when just monitoring, but its array of lights were still red, alerting them to potential dangers nearby. Ethan felt a tingle flow down his spine.

  “Yuna, take it slow, I have a bad feeling about this,” he said, tightening his hold on the bolt-thrower’s cold metal handle.

  Yuna kept her eyes front, but waved a hand to indicate she had heard Ethan, then the crawler decelerated. They trundled to the edge of the moorland, before the upland terrain fell away into a vast hollow that snaked between the hills, following the path of a wide, fast-moving river, the banks of which appeared to be teeming with wildlife, moving in the direction of the river’s flow. But then Ethan remembered the GARD and its red lights and his stomach twisted into a knot. He peered up at the spherical drone, which was hovering overhead and glowing red, then stared down into the valley.

  “Yuna, can your sensors see into the valley?” he asked.

  Yuna stood up in her seat and twisted her body around to face him; Ethan’s face was white and his body was rigid. It frightened her. “Ethan, what’s wrong?”

  Ethan’s eyes flicked to her, but his body remained fixed, as if frozen. “The movement down in the valley, Yuna, can you scan it? Can you read what they are?”

  Yuna frowned. “Yes, but what…”

  “Do it, please. And do it quickly.”

  Ethan’s manner had really scared her; she dropped back into the seat and entered a sequence of commands into the crawler’s console. Instantly, the GARD darted in an arrow-straight line towards the river, accelerating so rapidly that it was a mere dot in the distance in a matter of seconds. Ethan and Yuna waited in silence, Yuna tapping the dashboard nervously with her fingers, until the console bleeped.